Stephen DeHolles
Stephen James DeHolles (born December 29, 1991) is an American singer-songwriter/guitarist, actor, and an occasional dancer who rose to fame as the vocalist/guitarist for pop punk band Call It a Tragedy, and has, throughout Call It a Tragedy's hiatus era, received considerable attention as a solo artist, thanks to his debut EP, Until the A.M. (2005), his first full-length album, DeHolles (2006) and his follow up, A Toast to This (2008). DeHolles' third solo album, titled Lavish, is planned for release on June 15, 2011. He is well known as being one of the few emerging child stars in the music industry of the 2000s, reaching mainstream success with Call It a Tragedy in 2004 at the age of twelve (with the band's major label debut, Hell Yeah) and maintaining popularity into the present. The fact that much of his music was very vulgar and profane and thus controversial, largely due to his young age at the time (particularly songs such as "All Over You" in 2004, "Some Serious Shit" in 2006, and "Drugs Song" in 2009) helped him reach mainstream success as well. He is also known for his movie roles, particularly in the 2008 film, Movin' Out, and the 2009 and 2011 films (respectively), Days Ago and Like a Week Ago, both of which grossed over $100 million worldwide. Early life Stephen James DeHolles was born on December 29, 1991 to James DeHolles and Stephanie Williams; he is the younger brother of American actor/TV personality, Matt DeHolles. DeHolles enjoyed a middle-classed childhood with his family, who were typically semi-dysfunctional; it became an issue to DeHolles that he was an only child, though his parents did not wish to have another child. DeHolles' dad died via heart attack when he was eight years old, and he did not like his very strict step-dad. He took up playing the guitar around the age of seven, and soon also developed an interest in singing. After much practice, he started a band at the age of eight, but this did not last long, the other members not feeling very committed to writing music. Music career With Call It a Tragedy (1999–2005, 2009–present) Having auditioned and being accepted in 1999 as the singer-songwriter/guitarist of the band, DeHolles was the youngest in the newly formed band Call It a Tragedy, at around eight years old, while bassist Tyler Johnson and drummer Richard White, who had formed the band, were one to two years older. The band released two studio albums, Call It What You Want (1999) and Twelve More Songs (2002) which gave the band limited success. This limited success, however, paved the way for their major-label signing to Wreckway Records and the mainstream success of next two albums Hell Yeah (2004) and Hell Yeah: Part II (2005). However, it was this popularity and new, hectic life that resulted in internal problems for the band, as members, attempting to write the fifth album, argued over song ideas and spotlight issues. This ultimately resulted in the four year break-up of the band. In late 2008, however, DeHolles was called by bassist Johnson who said he and drummer White had made up and were both wondering if DeHolles wanted to be a part of the band again, and so the three got back together, and throughout the year, produced an EP, Hell Yeah: Part II & a Half in 2009, in advance to their album, and later their 2011 fifth album, Hell Yeah: Part III, which proved to be their most successful release yet. Solo career (2005–present) 2005–07: Until the A.M. & DeHolles DeHolles began working on a solo EP around summer 2005, titled Until the A.M., having written a few songs through breaks in the tour, that he felt didn't quite go with Call It a Tragedy's material, though he eventually, in August 2005, decided to scrap the album completely. A song from the album, titled "All I Wanna Do Tonight", was, however, leaked on to the Internet, without his permission, in early September 2005. The song was a hit, debuting/peaking at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week for the week ending September 14, 2005. Though this originally angered the band members due to them viewing it as a sign that DeHolles was trying to move away from them in the music industry, he explained the song was leaked against his intentions, and that he had never intended to release it until the band mebers talked about it, and, admitting he'd "scrapped the album it was from", he was ultimately forgiven. However, a few months later, in December 2005, he released another solo single, titled, "Livin' It Up", in which he'd tracked the drums and bass himself similar to the previous song by him, along with his usual guitar and vocals. The song became a hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was miscredited as being a Call It a Tragedy song, which DeHolles quickly denied as being a song by the band, and led to Johnson and White's suspicion that DeHolles was leaving the band, which ironically became true when the band split up officially on December 29, 2005, due to rising arguments between DeHolles and Johnson at DeHolles' fourteenth birthday party. Directly after these events, DeHolles decided he would release the EP, and released it the very next day, December 30, 2005 after contacting his record label, Wreckway Records. For the week ending January 6, 2006, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 for first week sales of 220,000, an unexpected amount of copies sold, likely due to the popular controversy surrounding Call It a Tragedy's recent break up. However, expressing the desire for a full-length album release, DeHolles did not go on tour for Until the A.M. and instead entered the studio again about a month later, from January-March 2006, to finish the album he'd begun recording in November 2005. On March 29, 2006, DeHolles released his second solo single, "Just Don't Care Anymore", which peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, another successful single. These two songs helped his self-titled debut solo album, titled DeHolles, released May 14, 2006, to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album eventually sold over 3,000,000 copies for a 3x Platinum certification by the RIAA. A subsequent hit off the album was the 2007 hits, "Wasn't Listening", which, after a slow climb, peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, in June 2007, and was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and the #1 hit "Anything", released on July 30, 2007, and peaked at #1 on the Hot 100 for one week, becoming his first #1 single in the United States. This album allowed DeHolles to go on the DeHolles Tour which spanned over half a year from September 2006-May 2007. 2008–09: A Toast to This After the hype for DeHolles was over, DeHolles decided to take a relatively long break, from roughly June 2007-December 2007, about seven months. Towards the beginning of 2008 DeHolles began work on his follow up, but admitted in interviews throughout spring of 2008 that he "wasn't really inspired" to write music at the moment, so the process "could take a little time". Announcing that he'd found inspiration to write over the summer, he finally entered the studio in August 2008, and the album was complete by November 2008. The lead single, "A Toast to This", was released on September 2, 2008, and proved to be a hit, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, and was his most successful solo single at the time. The other arguably successful song from the album was "Hilarious", released in November 2008, peaking at #25 and certifying Gold. The album, titled A Toast to This largely because of the success of the lead single of the same name, was released December 22, 2008, one week before DeHolles' seventeenth birthday. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and went on to sell over 2,500,000 copies in the US alone. He went on a tour, for the album, from February 2009-April 2009, though he eventually announced he had to stop, due to his exhaustion from being on two tours at once (his newly reformed band Call It a Tragedy was also touring). Though the third single, "Forget Everything Tonight", was not very successful, the fourth/final single, "This Means Goodbye", released in July 2009, became the most successful single from the album, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100 for four weeks and certifying 3x Platinum by the RIAA. With the confirmation that Call It a Tragedy were getting back together, DeHolles announced near the release of Call It a Tragedy's Hell Yeah: Part III release that he was through with solo work for a while, but just until the album is complete and the hype for it calms down. 2010–present: Lavish In February 2010 DeHolles announced he would record a major song for the soundtrack of the 2010 film, Fall Like Autumn. The song, titled "Like Autumn", was released September 21, 2010, and debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, his highest debut, though it quickly fell off the chart. Shortly after the release of Call It a Tragedy's fifth studio album, Hell Yeah: Part III, despite the following, major world tour, DeHolles announced that he'd been working on his third solo album since November 2010 and had just completed it. The first single from his new album, "It's On Me" was released November 26, 2010. The song debuted at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 with sales of over 170,000. The song reached its peak of #11 the next week. On February 15, 2011, DeHolles was featured in the song, "Duet", with main singer Ashlynn Winters, and it was announced that was the first single of her 2011 eponymous album, Ashlynn Winters. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #11 for first week sales of a little under 150,000 units. On March 29, 2011 DeHolles announced that the name of his next solo album would be Lavish, due for release June 1, 2011. On April 10, 2011, the second single from the album, "Borderline", was released, and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #4, with first week sales of over 275,000 copies. The next week, the song sold 250,000 copies, about a two percent decrease; the song remained at #4, however, due to increasing radio airplay, and fell to #5 the following week, and then to #7, and is currently at #8. "Whatever Happens" was chosen as the third single from his upcoming album, to be released as a single July 1, 2011. Film career 2007–08: Beginnings In June 2007, DeHolles announced that he'd auditioned for a film role and had been accepted, him playing a minor character in a drama movie as the younger brother of main character, moderate-success actor Dylan Johnson, in the late 2007 movie, Inspire Me, whose character had been trying to "make it big" for almost ten years and still hadn't been happy with his success. The movie, released December 1, 2007, was a critical and box office failure, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews, and not matching the $20 million budget the movie had, managing only $5,554,350 at the box office. He had a supporting role in the 2008 comedy, Movin' Out, which was more successful, with only a $14 million dollar budget but grossing over $80,000,000 worldwide. This movie helped DeHolles in the film industry, considered his breakout success with movies, and helped establish him as an actor. 2008–present: Days Ago & beyond In fall of 2008, DeHolles said he'd be starring in the 2009 film, Days Ago, and called it an action-comedy. The movie, released May 5, 2009, mostly thanks to all its promotions beforehand, eventually managed $101,000,000 at the box office, and, compared to its $30 million budget, it was a success. This was followed up with the February 2011 film, Like a Week Ago, also an action-comedy, which, with a $40 million budget, went on to gross about $155 million at the box office, considered an even bigger success than its predecessor. Musical style DeHolles has said, about the style of music he sings/raps, "Well, you know how everybody's got their good days and their bad, right? Pretty much, that's why my solo work is pretty much always depressing and the music with the band (Call It a Tragedy) is always punk rock, fun, and upbeat." This is evident in that much of his solo work (both of his solo albums, for example) has been listed under alternative rock and/or alternative hip hop by multiple websites, and virtually all of Call It a Tragedy's music has been listed as pop punk or punk rock by the same websites. Personal life DeHolles began dating singer Ashlynn Winters in January 2011, stating that they had been good friends for almost half a year before. Discography :See also: Stephen DeHolles discography Albums *''DeHolles'' (2006) *''A Toast to This'' (2008) *''Lavish'' (2011) EPs *''Until the A.M.'' (2005) With Call It a Tragedy :See also: Call It a Tragedy discography *''Call It What You Want'' (1999) *''Twelve More Songs'' (2002) *''Hell Yeah'' (2004) *''Hell Yeah: Part II'' (2005) *''Call It a Tragedy: The Hits!'' (2007) *''Hell Yeah: Part II & a Half'' (2009) *''Hell Yeah: Part III'' (2011) Filmography See also *Call It a Tragedy *Tyler Johnson *Richard White